Shadows (for lack of better name)
by IHaveNoLife17
Summary: The team is introduced to a world where shadows are alive. [Might be a one-shot unless you want me to continue. I hate my summary. And yes, I know there's already a Ninjago fanfic called Shadows, but I plan on changing the title when I find a better one.]
1. Chapter 1

My palms were sweaty, and I could feel the heat on my back. However, all I could think about was how my only protection was slowly fading, and it'd eventually leave me to roast in the fire. I felt helpless with my legs locked up like this, and I hated it with all my heart. A ninja wouldn't die like this! Think, Cole, think.

Okay, only your legs are immobile, I told myself. I turned my head around as much as I could to try and see what was doing this, but the only thing in sight was the metallic silver door and the flames making shadows dance across the already eerie-looking walls.

At this point I was past worrying about how stupid I might look to someone else at the moment, so my next thought was, where are the others? But I already knew the answer to that: Kai convinced Skylor to go somewhere with Jay, Nya, and himself; Lloyd and Zane- he'd be really useful right now!- went to stop some robbery. I would've gone as well, but Lloyd insisted I stay aboard the Bounty because I had a cold. Just a little cold! If I'd gone with them none of this would be happening. I wouldn't have even had the chance to follow a little boy screaming my full name (middle name and all) halfway across the city. Even if they noticed I was gone they wouldn't know where to search.

"I would've expected more from one of 'Ninjago's greatest heroes'!" a voice said over the crackling flames, stopping me before I dove too deep into my memories. The fire suddenly disappeared, drastically darkening the room. I was both glad and confused at the change.

"Who are you?" I demanded.

"Who am I? Shouldn't you be asking more important questions? Perhaps, 'Why can't I move my legs?' Or 'Who was that little boy?' But, no, you wish to know my name, of all things. It starts with A, are you happy?"

"Of course not! I can't-"

"Move your legs, yes, I know. Just a little precaution to make sure you'd stick around. And fire wasn't the best idea, sorry. Now you're covered in soot. Then again, your hair and clothes were already black, weren't they? So they can't tell unless they look at your face. Oh, and before I forget, tell Kai he's next, but also that he shouldn't get cocky because he won't be tested with fire like you were. Oops, that was a waste of breath. I forget I'm letting them watch."

"Letting who watch?" I asked, slightly embarrassed at the prospect of someone seeing me, the leader of the ninja, nearly burn to death.

"Your friends, of course. Who else? Hopefully they'll be better prepared than you...Quit it! I wouldn't have let you die!"

"I didn't say anything..."

"Not you, dear. Elo."

"Who?"

"Elo's only here because you are. Shadows can be real bothersome at times; they repeat their master's thoughts 10 minutes too late. I guess I can't complain, seeing as I'm a shadow as well. Lucky for me, I'm disconnected for the time being, though I'm not sure why. You know, I bet Enez- I mean Zane, sorry- he'd do better at this. Sense my presence or the like!"

"What are you talking about? Are you insane?"

"No, just happy. The portal opened a while back and Enez, Elo, Ike, and of course me went through. We had to leave Doyle and Yaj- boy, I'll miss his sense of humor!"

"What kind of name is Yaj?"

"Jay reversed, obviously. Ande and Dee couldn't think of any names close enough, so they left it that way. Personally I feel a little bad for Enez, he has the oddest name if you ask me, but whatcha gonna do- they had to work with 'Enaz'. I'm Ann with a y, just so you know. Enez is Zane's shadow, Doyle is Lloyd's, and Ike- that arrogant jerk's been so full of himself since he became disconnected!- was at one point Kai's shadow."

"Hey!" A new voice shouted, but both 'Ayn' and I ignored it.

"What do you mean, 'at one point'? Kai has a shadow. Okay, it's official; I'm talking to a lunatic."

"My sis isn't as crazy as you think!" the other voice exclaimed, "Garmadon disconnected me and made a million copies, and I just made sure a copy was reconnected and -BAM!- I'm free."

"Don't forget, there's the possibility you're just a copy," Ayn giggled.

"Disconnected? I'm curious about all this, but do we have to talk in here? It looks like a cave and I can barely see."

"Shiz, man, are you that uncomfortable in here?" Kai's shadow asked.

"You know what I find funny? My master has always liked Jay, but I love Elo. Hehe, even his name sounds perfect. E-"

"Ayn! Could you focus for once and maybe not be so dang random all the time?!"

"Is she the opposite of Nya?" I suggested.

"What gave you that idea?"

"Hmm, let's see," I replied sarcastically, "Maybe the fact that Nya would never act like that."

"Well, Ayn's only her shadow. Her current love-struck daze is because you're right there, and that means Elo has to stay close by, even if it's too dark for a shadow. Shadow's personalities are as random as rolling a dice, nothing to do with the masters. Would you say I'm the opposite of Kai?"

I shrugged before remembering they probably couldn't see me. "I don't know, I barely know you. It's Ike, right?"

"Don't wear it out."

"What's your sister's point in... 'testing' me, I think she said?"

"1) Elo, 2) so she can show off, and probably a third reason I haven't guessed yet. Also, while the personalities usually aren't opposite- Dang, this is hard to explain. Alright, your Nya doesn't have any powers- I mean element-wise, she's a million times better than my si-"

"J-E-R-K!"

I could practically see him glare at his sister before continuing. "What I'm getting at is, Ayn has powers similar to Lloyd. I'm ice, Enez is fire, Elo has lightning, Yaj is earth, and Doyle has nothing at all. Don't ask me why our elements are all switched up compared to yours; that's just how it is."

"I know why," Ayn announced in a sing-song voice.

"You do?! Tell me why, please, sis!"

"Because."

"Because why?" Ike asked, sounding flustered but hopeful.

"Reasons."

"Why you little- Sorry. You're annoying, that's all I'll say."

"Am I a space cadet?"

"I guess so. Who called you that? Earth? Fire? Lightn-"

"Elo would not do that! It was Yaj, for DP's sake!"

"Of course it was him. The evil-"

"Evil?! Pulling pranks does not make you evil! Are you picking my friends now? Cause I only hang with him because Nya hangs with Jay!"

As the shadows began to do something very common for siblings, aka argue, I was able to simply walk out.

[a/n: I've never heard Elo as a name, but it sounded more like one than Eloc. I pronounce it ee-low instead of it rhyming with Jello. Yaj is pronounced in a way that rhymes with badge. Enez is ee-nez, pretty much how it looks. Doyle and Ike don't need explaining, do they? Okay, done.]


	2. Chapter 2

[a/n: I got nothing to say. Mainly just a little explanation.]

"He's gone, you should stop that whole eye-watch thing unless you finally teach me it."

"If I did that I couldn't say 'I know something you don't know!' anymore. But yeah, I guess that's a good idea."

A second after doing as her brother suggested, she realized something. "I should've killed him!"

"Who?!" Ike was startled by his sister's sudden outburst, to say the least.

"Cole, who else have we seen recently?"

"Why would you-?!"

"Elo-"

"Do not interrupt me! Especially with his name-"

"What's wrong with my name?" Now that Cole was gone, Elo could speak. For some reason, when in the presence of their "masters," as they called them, shadows were unable to say a word unless disconnected.

Ignoring the third interruption in a row, Ike asked his sister, "Why's it always Elo this and Elo that with you lately?"

"Ain't it obvious? She's in love."

"Shouldn't you -oh, I don't know- go be Cole's shadow or something?"

"Excellent try. It's a new moon, idiot."

Ike opened his mouth to argue, but Elo smirked and added, "Street lamps too dim for shadows. I've got until he gets back to the ship, and you know what'll happen to me then."

Kai's shadow scowled at the ground, thinking about how he'd never really liked Elo. In relation to his human counterpart, he was nothing like Cole. Rude, manipulative, and evil (more deserving of the title than Yaj, at any rate) are all words that could describe the lightning wielder.

[A/n: before someone gets confused, Cole's (Elo) and Jay's (Yaj) shadows have swapped elements in comparison to Cole and Jay. Stated it last chapter but in different words, and I put this reminder cause it seemed there was room for confusion. Also as a reminder, Kai's (Ike) is ice, Zane's (Enez) is fire, and Lloyd's (Doyle) won't get any more than mentions. Please tell me in reviews if I should take this a/n out.]

What Ike considered worst of all was that the guy was a cheater (with Ike's ex Rolyks, no less) [a/n: Hmm, what is this reversed?] but his sister never listened if he tried to tell her. She'd assume he was trying to "protect" her by breaking them up. He didn't blame her though, not that he'd done things like that. Let's just say if Kai was overprotective, Ike was twice as bad.

* * *

One second they were fighting, the next both the green ninja and the ice ninja froze, their eyes now black as the darkest night. The robber they had been attempting to stop stared for a moment, wondering if this was some sort of clever trick. A similar thing was happening to Jay, Nya, and Kai, and Skylor was as confused as the thief was. The only difference was, the latter took the opportunity to escape while Skylor spent a few minutes snapping her fingers in the red ninja's face.

"What the..." Kai muttered.

She crossed her arms. "Don't scare me like that! I thought there was something wrong with you! Well, I mean more than usual."

"Ha ha, very funny." The red ninja rolled his eyes.

"It was. Now tell me what the heck just-"

"Anybody else just see Cole talk to invisible lunatics?!" the blue ninja interrupted, sounding frantic.

"No, I saw him chat with me and Nya's shadows."

"You believed that?!" Jay shouted, shocked, "I thought they were cuckoo!"

"Yeah, you've made that pretty clear. And quit yelling like that, people are looking at us."

"Please, Kai, they were already looking at us. How often do you see ninja in the park?"

The park had originally been Nya's idea for a date, and Jay agreed because, well, it was Nya's idea. Skylor unexpectedly had time free from the noodle shop, so the fire ninja took the opportunity to ask her out. Unfortunately, every place Kai thought would impress her was booked or too busy to actually be any fun, probably because it was Friday night, so Jay suggested they go to the park. It was both free of charge and big enough that the Samurai and the blue ninja could easily lose them later on. Kai had a similar plan, but before either could carry it out, their eyes, as well as Nya's, went black, and... let's skip back to where we were before the author bores the crap out of herself.

"Argh! Come on, I hate this place!" an unexpected voice shouted at the sight of the park.

Kai stared, almost dumb-founded, at the...thing that had attacked him so long ago. Only difference was that this time, the shadow was the same size as him. The red ninja reached for a sword that wasn't there and cursed under his breath when he realized he'd left it on the ship because the semi-formal clothes he was wearing now wouldn't exactly look right with a sheath on the back.

"I saw that."

"With your glowing, evil red eyes?" Kai blurted out.

"If that's what you choose to believe, so be it. But if I was evil would I tell you how to save your friend's life?"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm not in the mood for this," the shadow muttered. "Just ignore my thoughts on Elo during all of this, 'K?"

"During wha-" Nya didn't get to finish her sentence as the group's vision went dark and they heard Ayn's voice shout, "I should've killed him!"

By the time Elo had interrupted Ike, their sight was back. Seeing what Kai's shadow had seen and thought was a wierd experience, but not unlike what Ayn had done earlier. Only difference was that Ayn's was letting them view the events as if they were standing in the cave, invisible, while Ike was literally showing his memory.

And abruptly, it stopped. They sat up, blinking or rubbing their eyes. The red ninja felt a weird sensation, as if something inside of him was being pulled in two different directions. Meanwhile, the others either focused on one of the two odd sights before them: One of Ike's arms seemingly stuck to Kai's head as he fruitlessly tried to pull it away, or the dark figures that had appeared just as suddenly as Kai's shadow had.


End file.
